Hornblower in the West Indies
C. S. Forester (1958)
E-book downloaded from the Internet
Rear admiral Lord Hornblower is Commander-in-Chief of His Majesty's Ships and Vessels in the West Indies. The novel consists of five stories. In the first, Hornblower tells what he thinks is a great big lie (thus losing honour) in order to save England and Europe from another series of Napoleonic wars, only to find that what he said was true after all. In the second story, he conceives a plan to chase a much faster slave ship by fitting a ‘drogue’ – a large conical sail below the bows – to it while it is a neutral harbour – New Orleans, USA – so that he could free the slaves on the high seas when the ship is no longer protected by USA. He succeeds, but keeps various big egos happy by pretending he did not originate the plan. In the third story, largely inland on the island of Jamaica, Hornblower is captured by pirates, and is then set free to negotiate, but instead takes a ship around to near the pirates’ hideout and blows them out with mortars. The fourth story is about Hornblower unwittingly helping the cause of Simon Bolivar’s revolution in what later is Bolivia. His sympathies lie with the revolutionaries, but since England is not at war with Spain, he cannot help overtly. The final story brings Barbara out to the West Indies, where, as is afterwards discovered she helps a convict escape. Hornblower hands over charge to his successor, and sets sail for England. Their ship is caught is terrible hurricane and the entire crew is nearly lost, but Hornblower ties himself and Barbara and a few others to the mast and they survive, but just about.
Overview of the Series
It is obviously a series I like very much. Not Nobel-prize winning literature, but excellently written. The first time I read most, but not all the series, was when I borrowed the books from the British Council library, sometime in the late 80s. The first book in the series I read was 'The Happy Return' which also happens to be the first book in the series to be published. This was suggested to me by Jayavardhan Pandit, my junior in IISc, who was surprised I had not heard about the series before. I liked the book immediately, and later when I came to Chennai, I started issuing the books from the library, and I found I liked the books more and more. The characters are mostly well fashioned, especially Hornblower, Bush, Barbara and a few others. However many others are stereotypical, e.g. Maria. What I liked best of course was the historical context, which is fairly authentic, I think, and hugely detailed descriptions of the life in the British Navy in that period. The sailing scenes and the sea battles are thrillingly described. Even such episodes as chasing an enemy ship or escaping from one over a period of several hours or even days of sailing is excitingly told. Of course, I do not know if the descriptions are technically sound, but I think they must be, or else the websites would have been full of criticism. A great set of books, perhaps to be read again after a few years. However I should try and get the printed versions - reading e-books is not the same.
Afterword: There are couple of short stories, at least, that I remember reading long years ago, but which I don't find in the current set of downloads.There was one in which Hornblower, in retirement in his country estate, encounters a young refugee Napoleon III, who, history tells us, was later to be President of France and then its Emperor, around about 1845-1850. Hornblower must have been about 70 years old when the encounter takes place.
Overview of the Series
It is obviously a series I like very much. Not Nobel-prize winning literature, but excellently written. The first time I read most, but not all the series, was when I borrowed the books from the British Council library, sometime in the late 80s. The first book in the series I read was 'The Happy Return' which also happens to be the first book in the series to be published. This was suggested to me by Jayavardhan Pandit, my junior in IISc, who was surprised I had not heard about the series before. I liked the book immediately, and later when I came to Chennai, I started issuing the books from the library, and I found I liked the books more and more. The characters are mostly well fashioned, especially Hornblower, Bush, Barbara and a few others. However many others are stereotypical, e.g. Maria. What I liked best of course was the historical context, which is fairly authentic, I think, and hugely detailed descriptions of the life in the British Navy in that period. The sailing scenes and the sea battles are thrillingly described. Even such episodes as chasing an enemy ship or escaping from one over a period of several hours or even days of sailing is excitingly told. Of course, I do not know if the descriptions are technically sound, but I think they must be, or else the websites would have been full of criticism. A great set of books, perhaps to be read again after a few years. However I should try and get the printed versions - reading e-books is not the same.
Afterword: There are couple of short stories, at least, that I remember reading long years ago, but which I don't find in the current set of downloads.There was one in which Hornblower, in retirement in his country estate, encounters a young refugee Napoleon III, who, history tells us, was later to be President of France and then its Emperor, around about 1845-1850. Hornblower must have been about 70 years old when the encounter takes place.
No comments:
Post a Comment